Good Buy? Missed Your Chips!

[Rope-Pusher]

CHIP SHORTAGE DRIVING UP USED CAR PRICES - Autoline Daily
Used car prices are at historic highs but hold onto your hat because they’re going even higher. The average price of a used car is now over $22,000, and they’re setting all-time records. You can thank the chip shortage. Inventory is so tight for new cars that the car rental companies can’t get enough of them. So now they’re buying used cars, something they have never, ever done before. And that is sending prices soaring. Prices for used cars at auction are now 50% higher than a year ago. Bloomberg reports that vacation and business travelers will be paying record rates to rent cars. They can run $100 a day in Florida, $200 a day in Hawaii and $600 a day in Puerto Rico.

Wow, there was a time when people purchased used cars from the rental companies because they were well maintained, low mileage, and abused by a bunch of car-renting yahoos who drove them like they didn't own them.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... gets-worse

[ClutchFork]

CHIP SHORTAGE DRIVING UP USED CAR PRICES - Autoline Daily
Used car prices are at historic highs but hold onto your hat because they’re going even higher. The average price of a used car is now over $22,000, and they’re setting all-time records. You can thank the chip shortage. Inventory is so tight for new cars that the car rental companies can’t get enough of them. So now they’re buying used cars, something they have never, ever done before. And that is sending prices soaring. Prices for used cars at auction are now 50% higher than a year ago. Bloomberg reports that vacation and business travelers will be paying record rates to rent cars. They can run $100 a day in Florida, $200 a day in Hawaii and $600 a day in Puerto Rico.

Wow, there was a time when people purchased used cars from the rental companies because they were well maintained, low mileage, and abused by a bunch of car-renting yahoos who drove them like they didn't own them.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... gets-worse

Another good reason to drive a 1960s car. No chips.

[Rope-Pusher]

CHIP SHORTAGE DRIVING UP USED CAR PRICES - Autoline Daily
Used car prices are at historic highs but hold onto your hat because they’re going even higher. The average price of a used car is now over $22,000, and they’re setting all-time records. You can thank the chip shortage. Inventory is so tight for new cars that the car rental companies can’t get enough of them. So now they’re buying used cars, something they have never, ever done before. And that is sending prices soaring. Prices for used cars at auction are now 50% higher than a year ago. Bloomberg reports that vacation and business travelers will be paying record rates to rent cars. They can run $100 a day in Florida, $200 a day in Hawaii and $600 a day in Puerto Rico.

Wow, there was a time when people purchased used cars from the rental companies because they were well maintained, low mileage, and abused by a bunch of car-renting yahoos who drove them like they didn't own them.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... gets-worse

Another good reason to drive a 1960s car. No chips.

NO CHIPS?.....Something smells fishy around here!

I replaced the voltage regulator / rectum fryer in the alternator of my Dad's '74 Potniac Grand Safari wagon and it had a chip on the board that was sealed in clear silicone gel. I'm thinking his car had an electronic ignition module on it, too - I think I had to replace it after a couple years when one of the wires frayed and he got an intermittent miss. I wonder when those pesky chips first started worming their way into our vehicles.
Yeah, back then you could go to the local auto parts store and purchase parts to rebuild your starter or alternator. There was even a local business that specialized in rebuilding starters, alternators (and generators), and....batteries!

[Rope-Pusher]

CHIP SHORTAGE FORCES AUTOMAKERS TO SACRIFICE CONTENT - Autoline Daily
Last month, we reported that Peugeot is installing analog gauges in the 308 instead of digital ones, in order to free up semiconductor chips for its more popular models. But Bloomberg reports it’s not the only automaker sacrificing content in order to deal with the chip shortage. Nissan is reducing the number of vehicles with pre-installed navigation by about a third. Some Chevy Silverados are being built without a certain fuel-economy module, resulting in a one mile-per-gallon drop. Digital rearview mirrors in the Ram 1500 used to come standard but now are just an option. And Renault’s Arkana SUV is only available with a smaller display without navigation and it’s no longer offering wireless phone charging for the model.

I was for sure thinking that I'd see they were building with Amish instead of slushbox transmixers - NOT!

[Rope-Pusher]

AUTOMAKERS “BUILDING SHY” TO COPE WITH CHIP SHORTAGE - Autoline Daily
Another strategy automakers are using to deal with the shortage is what’s called “building shy.” That’s where a company builds as many vehicles as it can without the parts that need the chips. Those vehicles are then stockpiled to complete production at a later date, once the carmaker gets the chips it needs. The Detroit Free Press reports that GM has tens of thousands of vehicles stored at sites in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Texas and Mexico. And Ford says it has 22,000 vehicles waiting to be installed with chips. Earlier this week, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the largest chip maker in the world, said the chip shortage could last into early next-year.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ ... 924733001/

There was a tire shortage in 1976 and they were building some vehicles without spare tires. Most vehicles back then were sold with a full-sized spare tire. If no tire became available before the vehicle was delivered to its buyer, a buyer may have had to come back to the dealership when the tire became available. I'm kinda sorta thinkin' that they will have to get the "Shy" module installed to drive a vehicle off the end of the line.....but maybe once the vehicle is driven off the end of the line, run through the chassis dyno test, driven out of the building and parked somewhere, the module could be removed and recirculated back through the assembly line to allow another vehicle to be produced.

[ClutchFork]

CHIP SHORTAGE FORCES AUTOMAKERS TO SACRIFICE CONTENT - Autoline Daily
Last month, we reported that Peugeot is installing analog gauges in the 308 instead of digital ones, in order to free up semiconductor chips for its more popular models. But Bloomberg reports it’s not the only automaker sacrificing content in order to deal with the chip shortage. Nissan is reducing the number of vehicles with pre-installed navigation by about a third. Some Chevy Silverados are being built without a certain fuel-economy module, resulting in a one mile-per-gallon drop. Digital rearview mirrors in the Ram 1500 used to come standard but now are just an option. And Renault’s Arkana SUV is only available with a smaller display without navigation and it’s no longer offering wireless phone charging for the model.

I was for sure thinking that I'd see they were building with Amish instead of slushbox transmixers - NOT!

Nice to get proper gauges, but don't those new-fangled slushboxes have chips? Axe the slushboxes. Get us a real car! And no chips to rev hang the manual either!

[Rope-Pusher]

Check your tire pressures - Inflation has gone up!

USED CAR PRICES TO BLAME FOR INFLATION- Autoline Daily
Maybe you heard that the U.S. posted a big 4.2% increase in inflation last month. Well, you can blame used car prices for a big chunk of that. Bloomberg reports that one third of the increase came from the surge in used car prices. They were up 10% last month, the biggest increase since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting that data in 1953. Auction prices were up 54%. You can blame pandemic shutdowns and the chip shortage. Inventory of new cars is so tight right now it’s pushing consumers into used cars. Even the daily rental companies are buying used cars, something they have never done before.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ation-jump